This is one of my favorite stories. It describes the human condition so well that even though I am retelling the story now, it has not lost any of its magic for me.

It is a biblical story and it goes like this.

The Jews – some two and a half million of them – have left Egypt and are now at Mt Sinai. They see and hear God and they are so overwhelmed that their senses are scrambled: They hear sights and see sounds.

Moses now goes up the mountain to speak with God. He is gone far longer than the people expect, and they start to get nervous.

A minority make a small gold idol – a gold calf – so they can make contact with God. God has just told them that idols are forbidden – intermediaries of any kind are forbidden – so the idolaters are clearly in the wrong. But they are dancing their hearts out when Moses begins his descent from the mountain.

To place things in context, it is hard now in the 21st century to see the attraction of idolatry. But in those days it was a big thing – big enough that God had to command people not to do it.

So, back to the story – Joshua meanwhile starts up the mountain, intent on meeting Moses and placating him because he knows he will be angry.

They meet and Moses asks what the noise is that he can hear below. Joshua tells him it is only a vocal minority who have made an idol and that the mass of the people are opposed to it.

And Moses replies, no, that is not the sound of people opposed to what the minority have done. What I can hear is a lot of people sitting on the fence.

Heard from Rabbi Tatz, Jerusalem 1997

Moses Meets Joshua Halfway Up The Mountain is a post from: no more pencils

I Cut Up The Cushion Of My Dreams is a post from: no more pencils

Are you American? In that case, ‘Happy Holidays!’

Are you British? In that case ‘Happy Holidays!’ conjures up images of skiing in Switzerland, but what it most certainly does not do is conjure up images of Christmas, and New Year and all the other festivals there may be at this time of year.

That is because in British English, we don’t use the phrase ‘Happy Holidays’.

Well of course that is not 100% true because in England, all kinds of American phrases have crept into the language.

But ‘Happy Holidays’ would have a long way to go to make a general dint in the panoply of phrases the English do use – from ‘Merry Christmas’, and ‘Happy New Year’, to that good old generic ‘Season’s Greetings’.

Happy Holidays? What Are They Talking About? is a post from: no more pencils

On the BBC TV news just now was a report of a father who had put forty or more needles into his young child. The child was now en route to hospital to have the needles removed from inside his body, including two needles that were lodged in his heart.

The presenter finished reporting the piece and the camera swung to the co-presenter, Clive Myrie. It swung before he had time to compose himself. He looked shocked, disgusted, in pain over what the father had done and how the child was suffering.

Good for Clive Myrie.

Here is a link to his bio.

A Nod to Clive Myrie is a post from: no more pencils

On the BBC’s You and Yours a couple of days ago I listened to a program about airport security in the UK following the attempt by terrorists in 2006 to blow up airliners using liquid explosives.

In response to the threat, airports in the UK forbad passengers from bringing more than 100ml of liquid into the cabin. Any amounts above that limit are confiscated or, at the request of the passenger, handed back at the end of the flight.

Three years on from that, the radio program was asking among other things, whether the ban was effective.

One of the airport security staff, obviously oblivious to the implications of what she was saying, explained that confiscated liquids are put in the recycling bins under each counter, from whence they are sent off for recycling.

So somehow, between the time these suspicious and potentially dangerous items of toothpaste and hair gel and butter (yes, butter is a liquid under the rules) are taken out of people’s bags to the time they are dumped in the recycling bins, they magically become not suspicious and not dangerous.

Or on the other hand, dangerous materials are dumped in the recycling bins and left for the poor staff at the recycling centers to worry about.

Amazing…

One Hundred Milliliters Of Airport Security is a post from: no more pencils